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GIS Climate Change Portal

There is a growing demand for climate model projections by a number of user domains which typically use GIS. This interest has opened the door for interoperability between atmospheric datasets and GIS tools. One goal of the NCAR GIS Program is to make atmospheric datasets compatible with GIS tools and enable users to gain access, integrate, and manage spatial information, thereby communicating scientific outcomes to the community of GIS users and the stakeholders. The GIS Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has been distributing climate change scenario data in shapefile and textfile format from the web since 2005. The GIS Climate Change Scenarios portal was the first internet gateway in which users are able to access global climate model data in standard GIS data formats. To date, more than 4,000 users from 137 countries have accessed the climate projections through the data portal for a number of projects ranging from conservation to adaptation studies. Through our next generation portal, the users can access climate change analysis products such as seasonal and annual averages, and climate anomalies. One effort to achieve this goal has been to develop climate change data products for our user community, which includes processed climate model output that describes the anticipated climatological anomalies using various future emission scenarios. These products compare projected climate indicators to the observed climate of a reference period to indicate the magnitude of change possible between current and future climate. These datasets have been generated and are ready to be offered to the user community. To access the GIS climate change portal click here.